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Joseph Eeed: 



HISTORICAL ESSAY. 



BY 



GEOEGE BANCEOFT. 



" I saw too glory's holy flowers 
Bound couiuion brows profanely twined." 

SCHILLEK. 




NEW YORK: 
W. J. WIDDLETON, PUBLISHER. 

1867. 



E-^0 
X 

.¥-= 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 18G7, 

By W. J. WIDDLETON, 

In the Clerk's OUico of the District Court of the United Stat-;s for the 

Southern District of New York. 



JOSEPH REED 



A HISTORICAL ESSAY. 



Twenty years ago William B. Reed, of Philadelphia, 
published a life of his grandfather, Joseph Reed, or, as 
he now styles him, the "President" of Pennsylvania. 
He had prepared himself for his work by long research, 
under favorable auspices, and had amassed a storehouse 
of materials which he opened to others with liberality. 
An all-pervading zeal for redeeming the memory of his 
ancestor was obviously the motive which ruled him. 
The time was favorable ; the political animosities which 
prevailed in the last century had died away; family 
hostilities had ceased, and the men of this generation 
scorned to keep alive the personal enmities of the past. 
"Were it not for his family aspirations he would, without 
a dissenting voice, have been distinguished among con- 
temporary writers on American history. But the analy- 
sis of his statements shows that he suffered himself to 
be carried away by a passion to create an undeserved 
reputation for one from whom he was sprung. As a 
historian, I was bound to pronounce a dissenting opinion. 
Having fulfilled my duty, it could not surprise me, and 
it could not offend me, that the biographer should en- 



4 JOSEPH EEED : 

deavor to relieve the name of his ancestor, and to vindi- 
cate the views which I had overthrown. Once more he 
undertakes the impossible task of rolling his grand- 
father's reputation up hill into the position of a leading 
patriot. I only wish he had conducted the new display 
of his ardor with an accuracy from which I might have 
derived instruction, and an equity which need not have 
required a reply. I have through a long life accustomed 
myself to look to great and general principles, and never 
to take part in personal vituperation and asperities. It 
is my nature to dwell upon that which is generous and 
great, and to turn away from that which is paltry and 
mean; and while I do not feel at liberty to temper 
honest judgment by a desire to vdn the favor of the 
descendants of those of whom I write, I always pass 
over in silence the weaknesses and follies which neither 
portray the times nor illustrate events. No one but 
myself knows the candor which I have exercised, for 
no one else knows what materials have been before 
me and have been put aside. To be forced into estab- 
lishino; defects of character in another is most irksome ; 
the time consumed in the exposure seems like a waste 
of life, and now more than ever when so little of life 
remains to me. 

Wishing to husband every moment for the completion 
of an almost finished volume of American history, for 
several weeks I refused to see the tract upon " President " 
Keed, by his grandson, and it was but a few days ago 
that it was forced upon my attention. The pamphlet con- 
tains abundant evidence that the author is conscious of 
the feebleness of his cause. In his zeal to upset evidence 
derived from men of honor, who, by no fault of their 
own, fought against us, but who wrote dispassionately 



A HISTORICAL ESSAY. 5 

of scenes wliicli they witnessed, Le runs a tilt against 
the established canons of criticism. To raise a prejudice, 
he has even the inconceivable weakness, when his grand- 
father's good repute is in question, to class Riedesel 
among Hessians, and to throw a slur on Munchausen for 
his name. He goes about feeling everywhere to see if 
by chance he can find some means of exciting against 
me the prejudice of any man, or community, or section 
of country. He runs from North to South in the hope to 
rouse some latent prejudice, that he may have associate 
accusers. He tries to enlist in his behalf the pride of 
the honored State of Pennsylvania, by styling his grand- 
father its "President," though he was born elsewhere, and 
died in private life, was never chosen President by the 
direct vote of the people, never protected their good 
name, and has no right to sequester their glorious deeds 
to his private benefit. If men of the highest merit 
have in the course of my narrative appeared as not 
wholly faultless, he seeks to place his ancestor in the 
group with the best of them. An author of a history 
of the republic has exhibited " President " Keed as en- 
tering a false plea before the world ; the gi*andson con- 
tents himself with leaving the charge unrefuted, and 
caviling at some inaccuracy in the citation of a letter. 
The same historian complains of Reed for a want of 
fidelity to Washington ; the pleader, with the folly of a 
petulant child, thinks it a sufficient reply to assert that 
another of Washington's secretaries had eiTed in the 
same way. Moved by the very natural excitement 
which comes from seeing the monument which he had 
erected to the pretended virtues and services of his an- 
cestor crumbling to the dust, the grandson discusses the 
theme as a subject for invective and personality, though 



6 JOSEPH EEED : 

angry words Lave not a feather's weight before the tri- 
bunal of historical criticism. He exaggerates the charges 
brought against his grandfather, and will hear of nothing 
but extreme criminations, as an artful legal practitioner 
before juries who come and go, but whose verdict for the 
particular case is final, may be willing to get a culprit 
acquitted by making it out that the indictment against 
him charged a little too much. He insists on presenting 
the question as one of life and death, when the difference 
between us is in itself too wide to need exaggeration. 
William B. Reed describes his grandfather as a promi- 
nent and steadfast patriot of the Revolution ; I regard 
him as shuffling, pusillanimous, and irresolute. The 
grandson elevates him to the position of a disinterested 
and guiding statesman ; I see that he was governed by 
selfish considerations, and in moments of crisis was of no 
significance. The grandson esteems him for fidelity and , 
candor ; I find his character tainted by duplicity. The 
grandson exalts him as a hero whose fortitude increased 
with adversity ; I present him as a vacillating trimmer, 
who in 1774 and 1775 was not heartily in the cause of 
his country, and who near the end of 1776 meditated 
defection. 

In discussing these topics I shall treat them as a fit 
subject for scientific investigation. For this purpose I 
shall have occasion to do little more than produce from 
my note-books a chronological statement of authenticated 
facts. I address myself to those who are most familiar 
with thorough literary criticism and inquiry ; or, since 
the " President " and his grandson belong to the profes- 
sion which has so largely attracted to its ranks the talent 
of the country, I will write as though I were addressing 
our ablest lawyers or the judges of our courts of appeal. 



A HISTOEICAL ESSAY. 



That I may present the subject witli distinctness and 
order, I will first trace the unsteady career of the " Presi- 
dent" to the close of 1776 ; I will next consider if his 
subsequent general character is such as to rebut the tes- 
timony respecting his previous infidelity; and I will 
lastly explain why it was proper and necessary for the 
ends of history to hold him up in the light of truth. 



PAKT FIEST. 



For the first part of the examination which I am com- 
pelled to undertake, the materials are so abundant that 
there is no difficulty in establishing my allegations by 
continuous and irrefragable proofs. 

1. 

After finishing a course of studies in America, Joseph 
Reed, a native of New Jersey, repaired to the Middle 
Temple in London. A purpose of settling in England, 
encouraged by a well-placed affection, continued with 
more or less of uncertainty during the time of the stamp 
act and its repeal, and after the law declaring the power 
of England to bind America in all cases whatsoever, and 
after Charles Townshend's taxes on tea, paper, and colors. 
Meantime De Berdt, who was to have been Reed's father- 
in-law, died, and Reed, after marrying in England, de- 
finitively settled in Philadelphia. During his stay in 



8 JOSEPH REED : 

England lie formed those relations wliich, through his 
brother-in-law, Dennis De Berdt, led to his becoming the 
volunteer correspondent, or rather the volunteer in- 
former, of Lord Dartmouth, who then, as American 
minister, controlled the distribution of offices in America. 
His first letter to Dartmouth, dated the 2 2d of Decem- 
ber, 1773, derives its importance for the present exam- 
ination only from this : In 1775, Keed fell under a sus- 
picion of playing a double part in these letters, and his 
defense was : " In my first letter I absolutely disclaimed 
all office or reward for myself" (Reed, i. 98). Now, in 
truth, there is in this first letter no disclaimer of office 
or reward, so that Reed met a charge of duplicity by an 
answer which had no foundation in fact ; and there was 
the less occasion for so great a misstatement, as he tept 
a copy of his letters. 

2. 

The British laws of trade, most oppressive to the 
colonies, have been truly described by British statesmen 
as " a system of robbing and plundering themselves," so 
injurious were they to the mere commercial interests of 
Great Britain. There is no reason that I know of to 
believe that Reed expressed anywhere in America an 
approval of them, or made a defense of the Court of 
Admiralty; and from his position he was naturally 
classed with those who complained of them. On the 
4th of April, 1774, Reed explained to Lord Dartmouth 
how very improper were the appointments of the officers 
in the Court of Admiralty, not excepting even the judge, 
whom in his letter, though not in the printed copy of it, 
he described as " a disappointed stamp officer." Such 
appointments, he said, were " certain to invite opposition 



A HISTOEICAL ESSAY. ^ 

and insure contempt ;" and, lie added, " tlie due obser- 
vance of tlie laws of trade is so essential to the interests 
of the mother-country, that nothing tending to weaken 
or inforce them is beneath notice" (Reed, i. 58). It is 
not possible to write more strongly on the British side. 
Such opinions would never have been given to any one, 
least of all to a British minister, by any statesman of 
New York, Virginia, or South Carolina, or by any true- 
hearted American patriot. And it must be admitted 
that Reed could never have uttered them publicly in 
Philadelphia. 

3. 

Early in 1774, as matters approached a crisis, and the 
patriots of the country needed a free interchange of sen- 
timents, it became unsafe for them to use the established 
post-office, which was in the hands of the servants of the 
king. They therefore proposed a system of their own ; 
but this measure, whether it met w^th public counte- 
nance from Reed in Philadelphia or not, was privately 
and repeatedly disapproved of by him in his letters to 
Dartmouth. 

4. 

In the same year, when all the colonies, one after 
another, held conventions to discuss measures for the 
relief of Boston, suffering under the Port Act, and to 
sustain Massachusetts in resistins; the violation of her 
charter, Pennsylvania too held its convention. The 
country people brought down word of the spirit and 
zeal that prevailed in the interior, but, through an 
influence exerted on the convention in the city of Phila- 
delphia, their proceedings were comparatively tame. 



10 JOSEPH EEED : 

On the IStli of July, Reed, wlio was a member of the 
convention, sent an account of its doings to Dartmouth, 
and purged himself of the guilt of disaffection. His 
words are ; " Some resolutions have been framed by 
this convention as expressive of the sense of the Pro- 
vince, which I hoped to have been able to have sent 
you by this conveyance. Several of them, I make no 
doubt, will sound strangely from this Province, which 
has hitherto been distinguished for its moderation. As 
I had an opportunity of opposing them in that assembly, 
I thought it my duty to do so, but it was in vain " 
(Reed, i. xvi.). Thus it appears that in midsummer, 1774, 
Reed took part in America in the general uprising, but 
reported himself to the British minister as having done 
his " duty" by opposing all that was most spirited in its 
proceedings. The record is conclusive as to his interior 
sentiments at that time. To have been even more mode- 
rate than the moderate convention which left the direc- 
tion of affairs to the proprietary assembly, may not have 
been dishonorable, if he had but been so avowedly ; but 
to wear the mask of patriotism, and yet to report him- 
self to the British Secretary of State as in opposition to 
the patriots, passes the bounds of honorable conduct. 

5. 

All this time Reed used the strongest language of the 
foremost patriots, and professed to have a zeal as exube- 
rant as that of the most impassioned. Toward the end 
of 1774, he writes to Quincy of Boston, then in Eng- 
land : " There is a band of stanch, chosen sons of liberty, 
among some of our best families, who are backed by the 
body of the people in such a manner that no discon- 
tented spirit dares oppose the measures necessary for 



A HISTORICAL ESSAY. 11 

the public safet}^ I am more afraid of New York. I wish, 
you would endeavor to animate them" (Reed, i. 86). 
Such was the face which he wore to the advanced patri- 
ots, among whom there was a very general desire to make 
preparations for resistance so as to be able to repel force 
by force. Accordingly the Pennsylvania convention, 
which on the 3d of January, 1776, met in Philadeli:)hia, 
elected Joseph Reed their president. Again yielding 
to the powerful influence exerted in Philadelphia against 
the necessary measures of connteraction, the convention 
refused to take any steps towards military preparations. 
At once Reed, the president of the convention, in a let- 
ter to Lord Dartmouth, took the credit of the defeat in 
a great measure to himself, as follows : " I hope and be- 
lieve I have already been instrumental in preventing 
some measures of an irritating tendency. It had been 
intended to take some steps toward arming and disci- 
plining the province, a measure which I opposed, both 
publicly and privately" (Reed's Reed, i. 93, 94). But 
he did not stop there. He accompanied this letter with 
a farther exposition of his views and aspirations to his 
brother-in-law, De Berdt, who was his channel of com- 
munication with Dartmouth : " I was compelled, much 
against my inclination, to be chairman of our late pro- 
vincial congress, to which I have alluded in the begin- 
ning of my letter. This circumstance will lead him to 
consider me in the light of a factious, turbulent person, 
unworthy his further notice, and improper for him to 
correspond with, or as a person who acts uprightly on 
mistaken principles, and has some weight and influence 
with the province, which in time may be of use to gov- 
ernment lohen he sees his error, or the present causes of 
dissatisfaction shall be removed, and wliom, upon the 



12 JOSEPH EEED : 

whole, Government might wish to he on their side''"' 
(Keed, i. 97). 

These procedures are in conflict with the requirements 
of honor. In Philadelphia Reed's zeal is such that he 
is made President of the Pennsylvania Convention, 
while he secretly lets Dartmouth know that his influ- 
ence in that body was used for the British interest, and 
he gives a hint that he is getting ready to become an 
acquisition of the British government. 

6. 

In the early summer of 1775, very exaggerated opin- 
ions prevailed in Philadelphia of the strength of the 
New England army around Boston. In July Heed goes 
to New England on the stafl" of Washington, but re- 
mains with him only about four months, as his military 
secretary. In that time he greatly won the confidence 
of Washington, toward whom he professed the sincerest 
fidelity. In January, 1776, Thomas Paine published "Com- 
mon Sense," and Washington, Greene, John Adams, Gads- 
den, Franklin, Rush, and all the advanced patriots saw 
and avowed the necessity, the rightfulness, and the policy 
of declaring independence. On the sixteenth of February, 
Reed appeared in his place in the proprietary assembly of 
Pennsylvania, and took the oath of allegiance to George 
the Third in its fall force. Franklin avoided taking that 
oath, by declining a seat in the assembly. I say noth- 
ing in praise or blame of Reed's consenting to take the 
oath in February, 1776; but his eftbrts in the legislature 
brought no good to the popular cause. 

7. 
The course of events proved the need of subverting 
the proprietary government in Pennsylvania. Had 



A HISTORICAL ESSAY. 13 

Reed remained in the assembly he would have been 
compelled to have chosen his side, and to have acted 
with or against John Adams, on the question whether 
Pennsylvania should take up a government of its own. 
The responsibility proved too much for his nerves. 

He therefore escaped from the dilemma by rejoining 
the army, and he himself gives as his reason: "I have 
been much induced to this measure by observing that 
this province will be a great scene of party and conten- 
tion this summer " (Eeed, i. 190). He left everybody 
in Philadelj)hia to class him among the foremost in the 
band of patriots ; and when Pennsylvania for the first 
time secured its adhesion to Congress by a series of 
measures which destroyed the proprietary government 
and substituted a government by the people, Reed, after 
much time for deliberation, secretly wrote to one who 
had been a warm friend to the proprietary government 
and an opponent to the Declaration of Independence : 
" I could not am'ee in most of the chaus^es which have 
been made in our province." 



On the 4th of July, Congress made that declaration 
which proclaimed the independence of the United States, 
and thrilled the world with astonishment and delight 
by the prophecy of universal freedom. On the 4th of 
July, Joseph Reed, the American Adjutant-General, 
after having been in the camp less than three weeks, 
gives us a glimpse into his inner mind, and the class of 
motives by which he was ruled, in the following extract 
of a letter to a member of Congress : 

" With an army of force before, and a secret one beliind, we stand 
on a point of land with, six thousand old troops (if a year's service of 



14 JOSEPH EEED : 

about half, can entitle them to the name), and about fifteen hundred 
new levies of this province, many disaffected and more doubtful. In 
this situation we are : every man in the army, from the general to the 
private (acquainted M'ith our true situation), is exceedingly discouraged. 
Had I known the trice posture of affairs, no consideration would have 
tempted me to have taken an active part of this scene ; and this sentiment 
is universal" (Gordon, ii. 278). 

9. 

Witli such antecedents, it is not surprising tliat lie was 
one of the channels through which an overture for a 
negotiation for submission was transmitted to congress. 
We have seen that in February, 1775, Reed, through 
Dennis De Berdt, recommended himself to the British 
minister " as a person w^hom upon the whole government 
might wish to be upon their side." From that same 
Dennis De Berdt, Lord Howe brought a letter to Joseph 
Reed, which, as we know from 'Reed himself, though it 
had the appearance of a mere private letter, " was not 
intended merely as such." Lord Howe was anxious for 
a compromise, or, as it was usually called, an " accommo- 
dation" with America. In De Berdt's letter to Reed 
occurs this passage : " My Lord Howe is not unacquainted 
with your name. I have so high an opinion of your 
abilities and honor, and have had such repeated instances 
of your friendship and affection, that every thing has 
been said by me that you can desire or expect; and I 
have not a doubt if a treaty or parley is brought about 
in which you may be engaged, every degree of respect 
you can desire, or attention you can wish, will be shown 
you." (Reed's Reed, i. 198.) Fourteen days after the 
declaration of independence. Reed was ready to take a 
part in " a parley or treaty" with the Howes, of which 
the avowed object was to lead the colonies back into 



A HISTORICAL ESSAY. 15 

a state of dependence. He expressed " a fear " tliat 
congress Lad taken its decision " irrevocably." It is 
very true, subtle lawyer as he was, that he couched his 
offer under most cautious reservations ; but a few hours 
before congress voted that the declaration of independ- 
ence should be engrossed on parchment and signed by 
every one of its members, he wrote to one who had 
voted against independence : " My j^rinciples have been 
much misunderstood if they were supposed to militate 
against reconciliation." J. Reed to R. Morris, 18 July, 
1776, in Reed's Reed, i. 199. He expressed a hope that 
the overture of the Howes might be improved into a 
negotiation, and avowed his willingness to " take such a 
post as my situation and abilities will admit, and as may 
be directed" (Reed, i. 199). Seven days after the vote 
of congress that every one of its members should sign 
the declaration of independence, the heart of Josej^h 
Reed was not with them, for he could still write : " I am 
very sorry to see such a general disinclination even to 
hear of accommodation" (Reed's Reed, i. 209). 

10. 

While the members of congress jointly and severally 
wrote their names where time can never efface them, and 
where they shine like the stars on our beautiful flag, as 
they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred 
honor to the cause of independence, Reed, who, as he 
said of himself, '^knew too much of their situation to 
be veiy sanguine," confessed it still much against his 
inclination that Lord Howe would not lead the country 
back to a state of dependence by conforming his written 
declarations to his verbal ones ; and he predicted that 
if misfortunes should depreciate the currency " the army 



16 JOSEPH EEED : 

is gone." (Reed's Reed, i. 211, 215.) Nor is it an answer 
to say that Reed, wlio was a skilful lawyer, and under- 
stood the use of words when he put his thoughts on 
paper, did it with circumspection and reserve ; and still 
less is it an answer to say that in the company of 
patriots he played the part of a patriot. Had his 
language and conduct been harmonious and uniform, 
there would have been no ground for charging him with 
duplicity ; but let us hasten on. 

11. 

From his want of fixed principles and his despond- 
ency, it is natural to suppose that Reed was eager to get 
out of the public service, and it was so. In the month 
of September, he deliberately resolved to throw up his 
commission in the army ; but how to do it without pub- 
licly branding himself with dishonor, was not easy to be 
devised. A high of&cer in the army could hardly retire 
without observation, at a moment when the army was 
outnumbered and severely pressed. He did not dare to 
communicate his purpose to Washington ; but silently 
brooded upon it in his own mind, until at last he roused 
himself to a decisive step. (Force, 5th Series, ii., fols. 
826, 827.) 

A committee of congress had been at head-quarters to 
inquire into the state of the army. He let them come 
and stay and finish their visit, and kept his own coun- 
sels. When they were gone, on the first of October, 
Joseph Reed, without consulting Washington, sent to 
them his resignation in a long letter, of which the sub- 
stance is, that he demanded to be relieved, and, to use 
his own words, " the sooner the better " (Force, v. ii., 
826-7). But this letter is otherwise noteworthy as a 



A HISTORICAL ESSAY. 17 

proof of liis insincerity. He will have it, on the one 
hand, that he "resigns with a single eye to the public 
service and welfare ;" and yet he confesses that General 
Washington doubtless would think the public interest 
required him to remain. The two statements are in 
manifest contradiction ; and he knew it. 

12. 

Danger grew nearer and nearer. The committee of 
cono-ress and cons^ress itself took no notice Avhatever 
of his application to retire ; but we know from Joseph 
Keed himself that every succeeding circumstance had 
confirmed him in his intention to resii>:n his office of Ad- 
jutant-General. The service of the United States offered 
at that time no flattering emoluments, no career that 
could tempt ambition. There was nothing that could 
bind an officer to the service but zeal for the cause or a 
love of fame. On the 11th of October, Joseph Reed 
wrote to his wife : " You ask me what I propose to do ? 
It is a difficult question to answer. My idea is shortly 
this, that if Fi-ance or some other foreign power does 
not interfere, or some feuds arise among the enemy's 
troops, we shall not be able to stand next spring. * * * 
But if the enemy should make a vigorous push, I would 
not answer for our success at any time. * * * J have 
not the least desire to sacrifice you and them [my dear 
children] to fame. * * * My estate is no object of 
confiscation, my rank is not so high as to make me an 
example. * * * From what I can learn from Phila- 
delphia, there is a considerable party for absolute and 
unconditional submission. * * * A person must be 
in the secret to know the worst of our affairs" (Reed, i. 
243). 



18 JOSEPH EEED : 

13. 

There remained, indeed, very little to rely upon except 
the wisdom, decision, and fortitude of Washington. On 
the 21st of November, Keed avowed his want of con- 
fidence in Washington, and complained of him as hav- 
ing an indecisive mind, such as "is one of the greatest 
misfortunes that can befall an army ;" and he wrote that 
he had " often lamented it this campaign " (Lee's ]V[e- 
moirs, 178, 179 ; Moore's Treason of Lee, 44-46). 

14. 

Washino^ton was a man bent on maintalnino; inde- 
pendence by persevering efforts in the field ; Lee was a 
man bent on surrendering independence by negotiations 
with the British commissioners. Reed seized the oppor- 
tunity of his infidelity to Washington to make his con- 
fidential relations with Lee more close and intimate than 
ever (Lee's Memoirs, 179). 

15. 
We have arrived at the time when the intentions of 
Heed were openly betrayed. Wasliington was at New- 
ark, environed by difiiculties. It was the darkest hour 
of the retreat through the Jerseys. Bad as the state of 
affairs was when Keed desponded in October, and at- 
tempted to leave the army, things had grown Avorse, very 
much worse, and there was need of extraordinary and 
exemplary fortitude and energy on the part of officers to 
call out the strength of New Jersey and of Pennsylvania. 
Mifiiin and Reed were selected to make impassioned 
appeals and earnest solicitations : the former to the peo- 
ple of Pennsylvania ; the latter, a native of Trenton, to 
the legislature of New Jersey. Mifflin executed the 
office intrusted to him undauntedly, perse veringly, and 



A HISTORICAL ESSAY. 19 

successfully. Reed was sent on the 23d or tbe 24tli of 
November, that is, two days or three after his avowal 
of want of confidence in Washington, with a letter, 
dated the 23d of November, to the governor and legis- 
lature of New Jersey, saying : " The critical situation 
of our affairs, and the movements of the enemy, make 
some further and immediate exertions absolutely neces- 
sary ;" and the governor was referred to Reed, who as 
Adjutant-General was in the secret of the weakness of 
the army, to give him the particulars. Reed arrived at 
Burlington on or about the 25th, where he found his 
wife and family. On the 28th, the day on which Wash- 
ington was forced to retreat from Newark, without the 
knowledge and against the expectation of his chief, and 
in betrayal of the trust reposed in him, he renounced 
the service. On the 1st of October he had resis:ned 
his office by letter, and had not succeeded, his commu- 
nication receiving no answer or notice. This time he 
took the very unusual and very effectual course of get- 
ting rid of his commission, by inclosing the instrument 
itself to congress. He had been sent from camp on a 
special duty in that hour which " tried men's souls '' — 
in that hour which " tried men's souls " more than any 
former one ; and he seized the moment of his country's 
most desperate weakness, and his own absence from 
camp on special and most important public duty, to 
retire abruptly and absolutely from the service. 

Here is a literal copy of his letter of resignation, 
taken from the files of Congress, to which it went in 
the due course of business, and where it has been pre- 
served to the present time : 

" Sir — Near three Months ago I laid before the Committee of 
Hon. Congress appointed to form and regulate the New Army, 



20 JOSEPH EEED : 

my Intentions of relinquishing the Office of Adjutant-General at tLe 
Close of the Campaign. The Reasons I then assigned, and which 
I should intrude upon your Time to repeat, appeared to me so 
■weighty, that I conceived it a Duty to the Publick and myself to 
rejDresent them in the earliest and fullest manner. 

" As the season will not admit of further military Operations 
(unless theEneray should attempt an Incursion into this Province 
to harass and distress us, in which Case 1 shall most cheerfully 
devote myself to any farther service), I beg Leave to inclose the 
Commission, with the highest sense and warmest Acknowledg- 
ments of the Favor done me — and am, 

" Sir, your most obdt. & 

" very Hbble. Servt., 

"Jos. Reed. 
"Burlington-, November 28, 1776. 
" To the Hon. John Hancock, Esq., 
"Board of the Hon. Continental Congress, Philadelphia." 

On this letter the first thins^ to be remarked is its 
inexactness as to time. Instead of having sent his 
resio-nation to the committee of cons-ress " near three 
months ago," it was less than two. • Next, is his erro- 
neous statement of the time at which he had wished his 
first of October resignation to take effect ; he now dares 
to say it was to have been " at the close of the cam- 
paign," when, in truth, he had written, " the sooner the 
better." Further, the excuse which he feigns is worthy 
of animadversion. He was the Adjutant-General of 
the army, knew that Washington was vainly struggling 
to make a stand at Newark ; that he was seeking to 
draw to his own force the militia of New Jersey, the 
detachment under Lee, such aid as congress could 
stand, such aid as Mifflin could draw from Pennsylvania, 
and such aid as could be spared from the northern 
army ; and he was himself sent, according to Washing- 
ton's words, on special duty, " on the retreat, to rouse 



A HISTORICAL ESSAY. 21 

and animate the assembly of New Jersey to spirited 
measures for our support ;" and yet lie pretends that 
he resigns because the season admits " no further 
military operations." 

Meantime a letter from General Lee to Joseph Reed 
arrived at head-quarters, and, being addressed to the 
Adjutant-General, was opened as a public letter. In 
that letter occurred these words: "My Dear Reed — I 
received your most obliging, flattering letter ; lament 
with you that fatal indecision of mind which in war is 
a much greater disqualification than stupidity, or even 
want of personal courage. Accident may put a decisive 
blunderer in the rio;ht ; but eternal defeat and miscarriao;e 
must attend the man of the best parts if cursed with 
indecision " (Lee to Reed, November 24, 1776, in Force^ 
iii., 831). Some time in the night between the 1st and 
2d of December, Reed received this letter of Lee, in- 
closed in the followinsr one from General Washino^ton : 

"Brunswick, November 30, 1776. 

" Dear Sir: — The inclosed was put into my hands by an express from 
tLe White Plains. Having no idea of its being a private letter, much 
less suspecting the tendency of the correspondence, I opened it, as I 
had done all other letters to you from the same place and Peekskill, 
upon the business of your office, as I conceived and found them to be. 

" This, as it is truth, must be my excuse for seeing the contents of 
a letter which neither inclination or intention would have prompted 
me to. 

" I thank you for the trouble and fatigue you have undergone in your 
journey to Burlington, and sincerely wish that your labors may be 
crowned with the desired success. My best respects to Mrs. Reed. 

** I am, dear sir, your most obedient servant, 

"Geo. Washington'. 
"To Joseph Reed, Esq., Adjutant-General, Burlington." 

(Force, iii, 921.) 



22 JOSEPH eeed: 

The words of Washington are seemingly mild, and 
even apologetic, but in form and in substance they con- 
vey, as others have said, the coldest and most cutting- 
rebuke, from which Reed did not recover for many 
months, if indeed he ever fully recovered. In this letter 
Washington abstains from his former usual language of 
friendship, avows that he is aware of Reed's intrigue 
with Lee, and, moreover, reminds Reed of the special 
and as yet unfulfilled duty intrusted to him. With 
such reproof ringing in his ears, and with a reminder of 
the censure pronounced on officers who slunk away from 
the army in time of danger. Reed, on the second of De- 
cember, wrote once more to the President of Congress. 
Of this letter the following is an exact copy from the 
archives of Cong-ress : 

o 

"Burlington, December 2, 1776. 
" Sir : — When I did myself the Honour of addressing you on the 30th 
ult. I had not the least Idea that the Enemy would at this Season 
attempt a Progress thro the Country — It seems but too probable that I 
was mistaken. — I therefore beg Leave to retract the Resignation I then 
made & as soon as I have disposed of Mrs. Reed & my children will 
attend my Office in the Army untill a Successor is appointed or Opera- 
tions shall cease beyond all Doubt. 

"Flattering myself that an uninterrupted Attention for Six Months & 
my conduct during that Time will incline you to the most favourable 
Construction of this Measure which proceeded from our unacquaintance 
with the State of Things, I am 

"With great Respect, Sir, 

" Your most obed. & very 
"Hbble. Serv'. 

"Jos. Reed." 

On this letter there is again occasion to observe Reed's 
want of exactness and truth. His letter to Congress 
was of the 28th of November, and he says it was of the 



A HISTORICAL ESSAY. 23 

SOtli. Then as to the reason lie assiij-ns for his resio;na- 
tiou and its withdrawal, neither the one nor the other 
has any foundation in fact, but is directly contrary to it. 
The enemy were pursuing Washington then, just as they 
were when Reed was dispatched from the camp to get 
support from New Jersey, and no more. He threw up 
his commission when ev^ery man's service was needed 
most, and when he himself was on special duty, which 
was as yet unperformed, without the knowledge and 
against the expectations of his superior. He recalls his 
resignation only to save himself from greater reproach 
than he could have borne, and if he escaped opprobrium 
he did so by false pretences. 

16. 

Keed's letter recalling his commission was received 
and read in Congress on the third day of December. A 
patriot father, who loves his wife and children, would 
naturally place them in a time of danger where he could 
most certainly rejoin them without changing sides. Keed 
writes on the second that he will attend to his office 
" as soon as I have disposed of Mrs. Reed and my chil- 
dren." It was a matter of import in whose hands he 
would leave them, and he had a choice. Had he sent 
his wife and children in the ferry-boat across the river 
from Burlington to the Pennsylvania side, they would 
have been among the patriots. He chose to send Mrs. 
Reed and her family into a part of New Jersey where 
they remained, as William B. Reed expresses it, " lite- 
rally in the possession of the enemy " (Life of E. Reed, 
255). Thus in December, 1776, Joseph Re&i, having 
his choice of a place of refuge, placed, to use his own 



24 JOSEPH EEED : 

words, " a wife and four children in the enemy's hands " 
(Reed's Reed, i. 2T3). 

17. 

So soon as he had thus disposed of his wife and chil- 
dren, as hostages to the British, Reed repaired to the camp 
of Washington, and crossed the Delaware with the Ame- 
rican army. In the camp of Washington, beyond the 
Delaware, Joseph Reed, speaking to an officer respect- 
ing American affairs in general, said that appearances 
were very gloomy and unfavorable. To General Phile- 
mon Dickinson, whom he found in command of the 
militia of New Jersey, Reed, who had been deputed by 
Washington to Burlington to animate the people of 
New Jersey and gain their aid to the cause, said that 
he and several others of Dickinson's friends were sur- 
prised at seeing him there. This is known from the 
testimony of Dickinson himself, a witness unimpeach- 
able and unimpeached, against whose credibility the 
most that has been said is, that he was closely connected 
with a man who was not a friend to Reed (Cadwal- 
ader's Reply, 27, 28). 

18. 

Reed soon left Washington's camp, for what reason is 
not certainly known. The knowledge that his intrigue 
with Lee had been discovered may have made his pres- 
ence in the family of the Commander-in-Chief too uncom- 
fortable to him, or he may have wished a greater freedom 
of motion than he could hope for under the eye of 
Washington. His pretence that he was specially sent 
by General Washington for the express purpose of as- 
sisting General Cadwalader is discredited by Cadwal- 
ader, and still more by Reed's own conduct in being 



A HISTORICAL ESSAY. 25 

almost constantly absent from Bristol, and conducting 
himself as an officer at large. His despondency followed 
him from head-quarters to the camp at Bristol, and he 
said to the commander of that post, whom he pretends 
he was commissioned to assist, " I do not understand fol- 
lowing the wretched remains of a broken army." Cad- 
walader was a man of truth and honor ; his testimony 
on this occasion is supported by E,eed's conduct, and by 
witnesses to similar words ; and it must be received as 
true beyond a question. 

19. 

In his protracted absence from head-quarters. Reed 
appears to have passed but little of his time at the camp 
at Bristol. On the 19th he passed the night at Bur- 
lington, and on the 20tli he, without the knowledge 
of Cadwalader, sent a flag of truce of his own to Colonel 
Donop, requesting an interview with him on the next 
day. On this much controverted subject it is best to 
consider only that which is certain and established. 
Reed was an officer without any command whatever ; 
and though, as an individual, he may have wished to 
see Donop, he had no authority whatever to consult him 
on public affairs, or to settle with him any question of 
neutralization. Further, Reed said that he sent the 
flag on the application of some of the inhabitants of 
Burlington ; but Daniel Ellis, his witness, fails to es- 
tablish the assertion, saying ouh', "Joseph Reed was 
applied to by some of the inhabitants, as this deponent 
understood f' and the affidavit of Bowes Reed is still 
more I'ambling, incoherent, and untrustworthy, contain- 
ing errors positively asserted, and then softened by the 
clause, " as this deponent was then informed." Further, 



26 JOSEPH EEED : 

the inhabitants of Burliuo;ton never owned that the flas; 
was sent at their request, but, as far as there is any 
evidence on the sul)ject, they denied it, and represented 
it, as with Reed, a personal affair. Further, in his mes- 
sage to Donop, he pretends to write under the authority 
of Washington ; and that assertion was false. He had 
no authority whatever from Washington to send the 
request for an interview ; and he wrote, as he was forced 
to confess, of his own motion, without the authority of 
any one in command. What adjutant-general ever did 
the like ? Further, the messenger by whom he sent the 
flag of truce was, to say the least, a doubtful character. 
Cadwalader, in 1783, writes of him: "I have ample 
proof of Mr, Ellis's attachment to the enemy, which may 
be produced, if necessary" (Cadwalader, 37); and this 
statement, as far as I can find, was not denied for more 
than ninety-three years, when no other exculpatory evi- 
dence is given than that the property of Ellis had not 
been confiscated, which proves nothing as to his rela- 
tions in 1776. Further, the ostensible reason for meet- 
ing was said by Reed to be a desire to declare Burling- 
ton neutral, and Donop did not think this neutralization 
could be the real purpose of the flag of truce. Further, 
Donop refused to meet Reed, as he desired, and Reed 
suppressed this answer; and when, some years after, 
he gave an account of it, he and his brother, Bowes 
Reed, completely falsified it, making the proposition 
for a conference come, in the first instance, from Donop 
himself, when Reed had applied for a conference, and 
Donop bad in the first instance refused it. Further, Donop 
reported the matter to his superior officer ; and when time 
enough had passed for the British Major-General to re- 
ceive and answer the report, Donop VvTote again, as we 



A HISTORICAL ESSAY. 27 

sliall see, offering to meet Reed at any time and place 
lie might appoint. Reed, as though the matter was a 
private concern of his own, made no report of it to Cad- 
walader or to Washington. 

20. 

Donop's refusal to hold a conference with Reed was 
written on the 20th of December. Under date of 
the 21st the following passage occurs in the Donop 
journal : 

" Der OberstReed, der neulich eine Protection erhalten, 
seye dem General Mifflin entgegen gekommen, und habe 
demselben declarirt, dass er nicht gesonnen sey weiteres 
zu dienen, worauf ihm Mifflin sehr hart begegnete und 
ihm sogar einen dem Rascal geheissen habe ;" which, 
being literally rendered, is : " Colonel Reed, who lately 
received a Protection, is said to have gone up to General 
Mifflin, and declared to him that he was not disposed to 
serve any longer, upon which Mifflin met him very 
harshly, and even called him a damned rascal." A 
question is raised whether the clause, " who lately 
received a protection,*' is a descriptive clause inci- 
dentally inserted by the writer of the diary, or whether 
it forms a part of the rumor. On this point I had the 
benefit of the opinion of one of the ablest Germans of my 
acquaintance — a scholar who joins to the highest culture 
received in the land of his birth an admirable degree 
of knowledge of our language and history ; and he 
assured me that it is beyond a doubt a descriptive clause 
to distinguish the person to whom the rumor relates ; and 
having this highest authority, I said that " the statement 
though made incidentally is positive and unqualified." 



28 JOSEPH REED : 

The "President's" grandson insists that the clause forms a 
part of the rumor ; but in this he can hardly be sincere, 
for, to give his interpretation a plausible appearance, he 
is obliged to mistranslate the passage, and escapes instant 
detection only by keeping the original out of sight. The 
words are : " Der Oberst Reed, der neulicheine Protection 
erhalten, seye," &c., which, correctly rendered, is : " Col- 
onel Keed, who lately received a protection, is said to," 
&c. ; but the " President's " grandson mistranslates : "The 
Colonel Reed having received a protection, had," &g 
The error is glaring, as any German who knows Eng- 
lish may see. 

But suppose for a moment the grandson's interpreta- 
tion to be correct, then it follows that on the 21st of 
December, 1776, Reed's treachery was so notorious, that 
the German officers at their camj)-fires amused them- 
selves with stories about the enmity of Mifflin to Reed, 
and about Reed's having provided himself with a pro- 
tection ; and one part of the stoiy, that Mifflin thought 
meanly of Reed, was unquestionably true. 

But I believe the clause to be descriptive ; as if one 
had reported in the last century : " William Pitt, who 
lately increased his debts, is said to be about to marry 
a peer's daughter." The clause, " who lately increased 
his debts," is a descriptive clause. If it be asked why 
I did not insert the Donop statement in the text of my 
liistory, ray answer is, because it wants the mention of 
time and place for which I habitually inquire ; and as 
circumstantiality is wanting, there may be room to ask 
whether the statement is wholly true, or only partially 
true, or founded in mistake. And which of these three 
options is most fit to be chosen must rest on collateral 



A HISTORICAL ESSAY. 29 

evidence * My charge extends no further than that the 
'' President " meditated defection. 

21. 

From the moment that the British extended their 
line of posts along the Delaware, Washington resolved 
on an attack upon Trenton. The British commander 
heard of it ; common rumor repeated it in Trenton ; 
patriots of Philadelphia knew it as early at least as the 
18th ; it was announced in a letter by Greene on the 
19th; Robert Morris on the 21st wrote officially about 
it to the Amei'ican commissioners at Paris. It is impos- 
sible that Heed should not have known it, for nothins; 
was kept secret but the hour at which it was to take 
place. On the 2 2d he writes a letter of six pages to 
Washington, very skilfully drawn, advises him to do 
what he must have known Washington was preparing 
to do, and makes his letter such as he might be able to 
show for his justification under any possible contingency. 
He had written to Lee of Washino-ton's indecision, and 
he comes upon this point in the letter. He had com- 
plained of Washington as too much influenced by the 
advice of Greene ; he now renews the caution against 
such advice, at a time when Greene's advice could not 
but have been altoo-ether on the rio-ht side. He had 
revealed to Cadwalader and others the unmanly despond- 
ency which had marked all his conduct for more than 
three months ; he now, as if intending that his retire- 
ment should create no surprise, avows to Washington 

* William B. Reed writes, page 94 of his pamphlet : " A protection 
was never granted without an antecedent oath." This shows how 
loosely he writes. The Howes under their proclamation required no 
oath. 



80 JOSEPH EEED : 

his- dejection, and writes: "Some enterprise must be 
undertaken in our present circumstances, or ive must 
give up the cause. Unless some more favorable appear- 
ance attends our arms, the militia officers here will take 
benefit from it [namely, the proclamation of the Howes]. 
I will not disguise my own sentiments, that our cause is 
desperate and liopeless^ if we do not take the opportunity 
of the collection of troops at present to strike some 
stroke." (Eeed's Keed, i. 272.) 

Some hours after writing this letter, Joseph Keed 
rode froni Bristol to head-quarters in Newtown. In the 
ride he liad as his companion Benjamin Kush, one of the 
members of congress from Pennsylvania, and we get 
glimpses into the mind of Keed on the day of his writ- 
ing this letter, through his talk to this companion of his 
travel. The conversation turned uf)on the state of mil- 
itary affairs. Keed praised the bravery of the British 
troops, and spoke contemptuously of the cowardice of 
the Americans. He said that " the author of the Farm- 
er's letters had begun an opposition to Great Britain 
which we have not strength, to finish." When Rush 
lamented that a gentleman of his acquaintance liad sub- 
mitted to the enemy, Keed said, tkat " he had acted 
properly, and that a man who had a family did right to 
take that care of them." (Cadwalader's Keply, 28, 29.) 

From such convincing testimony there is no escape 
but by impeaching the veracity of Kush. The first 
question to be asked relates to circumstances of time 
and place. Was Kush at Bristol, so that he might have 
been Reed's companion ? As a member of congress, 
Kush might have been looked for in Baltimore, but we 
know that on the 20th of December he was in Phila- 
delphia on his way to Bristol, and that on the 21st he 



A HISTORICAL ESSAY. 31 

was at Bristol (Force, ili. ISl^), just in time to be Reed's 
companion on the excursion of the 2 2d. Next, we must 
consider the chai-acter of the evidence in itself; and if the 
substance of the testimony of Rush is examined, the words 
attributed to Reed will be found to tally exactly witli 
"vvhat we know to have been his-^opinions and intentions, 
as expressed in the letter to his Avife of the eleventh of 
the previous October, and in his conversations with Gen- 
erals Dickinson and Cadwalader. 

So far, then, the testimony is fully supported. It is 
glaringly unbecoming in the grandson of the "Pi'esi- 
dent " to attempt to impugn the character of Rush for 
veracity. Reed took the oath of allegiance to George 
the Third, seven weeks at least after Rush had declared 
himself unequivocally and irrevocably for independence. 
On the second of August, 1776, Rush signed the Decla- 
ration of Independence, and kept with truth and firm- 
ness the pledge which he then gave of life, fortune, and 
sacred honor ; while Joseph Reed, a high officer in the 
American army, by his own account, " hesitated about 
his duty," and was sighing for " conciliation," " accom- 
modation," and a return to a state of dependence. It is 
true that they both at one time called in question the 
military ability of Washington : it is also true that 
Washington forgave them both ; Reed, as we shall see, 
on false asseverations ; Rush, on a full knowledge of the 
worst. I once had in my custody fragments of diaries 
and auto-biographical sketches of Rush, written at various 
periods of his life, as well as two bound volumes of his 
most private correspondence, so that I was able to 
study his character thoroughly. He did not deny his 
faults, but claimed to " aim well." The key to his cha- 
racter is, that he was of an impatient and impulsive 



32 JOSEPH EEED : 

nature, fond of quick decision and quick action, and 
in consequence capable, under sudden excitement, of 
writing in terms of extravagance, or judging character, 
for the moment, unfairly. As a physician he inclined to 
powerful remedies and the free use of the lancet, and in 
public life he was eager for drastic measures, so that 
he sometimes fell into controversy with men of a calmer 
temperament than his own. But the tone of his own 
opinions is always the same. From his early life to his 
old age, his patriotism could not be doubted, and when- 
ever a question regarding freedom arose Jie was sure to 
take the side of freedom. As he was one of the first to 
speak for independence, he was one of the first, publicly 
as well as privately, to speak for the abolition of slavery, 
and to treat the colored people as fellow-men and fellow- 
citizens ; and to his last breath he was devoted to those 
principles of Jefferson which were humane and liberal. 
Tiie profession of medicine, no less than that of war, has 
its bead-roll of heroes who have defied death in the dis- 
charge of duty. When an infectious pestilence, raging 
in Philadelphia, rapidly swept nearly four thousand to 
the grave. Rush despised every consideration of personal 
safety, and was so true day and night to his patients 
that it was said of him in Europe: "Not Philadelphia 
alone but mankind should raise to him a statue." I do 
not believe, nor will my readers believe, that that man 
was capable of deliberately bearing false witness against 
another. It is established then, that, on the 22d, Joseph 
Reed did not refrain from avowing that a man who had 
a family did right to take care of them by submitting to 
British rule. 

22. 

On Christmas-eve, Reed, who pretends he was sent 



A HISTORICAL ESSAY. 33 

to Bristol to be the virtual commander at that post, 
rode as a simple messenger to Philadelphia, without au- 
thority from Washington to deliver any message what- 
ever. There can be no pretext that Reed should have 
gone to Philadelphia, though he obtained Cadwalader's 
consent to the journey. Y'^ashington took care to send 
his own precise and full orders to Putnam by his own 
messenger and at his own time (Washington to Putnam, 
25 Dec, in Force, iii. 1420). Reed, having found that 
Philadelphia was, to use his own words, " near an insur- 
rection in favor of the British," returned to Bristol. 
We have seen that on the 19th of December, Reed, 
making use of a flag of truce, was at Burlington, passed 
a night there and remained on the 20th, till he received 
ft'om Donop a refusal to meet him in conference. On 
the 25th, Donop, who in the mean time had reported 
Reed's request for a conference to his superior officer, 
sent a sealed letter to Reed, offering to meet him at any 
time or place that he would see fit to appoint. Cadwala- 
der, in Reed's absence, opened this letter, and thus dis- 
covered the unauthorized correspondence ; but with ad- 
mirable presence of mind he used it in the way that 
wouhl best conceal his own intentions. While he was 
preparing on that very day to lead his little army across 
the Delaware, in order to drive Donop back upon Prince- 
ton, or Brunswick, or Amboy, he quietly wrote : " Col. 
Reed will return to-morrow, and he will then request 
you to name another time and place ;" and before that 
morrow should dawn, it was the intention of Cadwalader 
to meet Donop and his troops on the edge of battle. 
Returninsr that evening:, Reed became aware of the con- 
tents of Donop's letter. He wrote to Washington to 
expect nothing from below, that is, neither from Phila- 

3 



34 JOSEPH EEED : 

delpliia nor from Bristol, went across the river, and he 
who pretends that he had been designated by Washing- 
ton to be the virtual commander of the troops at Bris- 
tol, left the troops, and without any pretence whatever 
of a public nature to justify his conduct, he rode on to 
Burlington, which was within the cordon of the posts 
established by the British, which was visited daily by 
their patrols, but where the message received a few 
hours before from Donop assured his personal safety. 

23. 

The "President's" grandson pretends that Reed 
returned from Burlino-ton before the issue of the battle 
was known. Not so. The testimony is all the other 
way. The silence and the assertions of Reed are against 
him, as well as the testimony of Cadwalader. Reed 
asserts that he heard at Burlington the cannon of the 
battle of Trenton ; now there was but a very slight use 
of cannon on that occasion, and the cannon were of lio-ht 
calibre; the wind was from the northeast, carrying the 
sound directly away ; rain and sleet were falling; and 
Trenton was twelve miles off. Cadwalader crot news of 
the result in three hours after the victory; Reed pre- 
tends to have remained in uncertainty for thirty-six 
hours. As to the time of Reed's return, his own ac- 
count is very vague, but implies that he waited for a 
change of weather, and on the 26th the weather did 
not chano;e. Cadwalader knows nothing* of him till 
the 27th. The visit of Reed to Burlinofton at such a 
moment, and his stay there, have never been explained, 
on a motive of a public character. 

24. 

It is the rule of historical criticism to receive, ex- 



A HISTORICAL E3SAT. 35 

amine, and winnow carefully all evidence that may be 
produced, but to give to it no moi'e weight than it is 
fairly entitled to. The testimony of the liumblest is 
never excluded. It is a very remarkable fact, that in a 
diary kept by Margaret Morris, of Burlington, there is 
an entry of the testimony of a woman who said, she 
overheard Reed, when he took shelter in Burlington, on 
the morning of the 26tli of December, 1776, avow to 
Colonel John Cox, who was in the same room with him, 
the purpose of setting oif to the British camp. The testi- 
mony is not entirely to be rejected. Reed, at the time 
mentioned in tlie diary, was actually in Burlington ; the 
remark is in harmony witli all tliat had gone before ; 
the minute was made within nine days after the 2Gth of 
December, in a diary which was entirely a private one. 
There is no reason for supposing the witness to have 
been able to invent her report. The diary remained 
entirely private till long after the death of its writer 
and of Reed ; and the character of the writer of the diary 
is beyond reproach.. As there can be no cross-examina- 
tion, the statement must be subjected to the severest 
scrutiny; and the testimony of Colonel Cox becomes 
most desirable. Now it is a very remarkable fact that 
w^e have his testimony. 

25. 

Men of that day saw the dubious aspect of Reed's 
stay at Burlington, and expressed their belief that he 
had meditated defection. Desirous to purge himself 
from the charge, Reed looked about for a witness in his 
behalf, and out of all men in Pennsylvania or New Jer- 
sey, Colonel John Cox, his most devoted friend, a man 
connected with him by marriage and bound to him by 



36 JOSEPH EEED : 

benefits received, was the man of his choice to clear him 
from the imputation. That witness makes his certificate 
Avhere he is free from the perils of a cross-examination, 
and he shows himself most willing to appear on behalf 
of his friend. The accusation was that Reed had medi- 
tated defection ; and his witness deposes : " Mr. Reed 
never intimated, nor had the subscriber the least reason 
to suspect, he had any intention of abandoning the cause 
or arms of his country, to join those of the enemy" 
(Reed and Cad. Pam. 64). The question recurs again ; 
and again he answers: "The subscriber had frequent 
conversations with the said Mr. Reed during the time of 
our greatest difficulty and distress, in none of w^iich did 
it ever appear to be the intention of the said Mr. Reed 
to abandon the cause of his country hy joining the 
enemyr (Ibid.) Thus Reed loses his case by his own 
chosen witness, who expresses nothing at variance with 
the accusation. Reed is charged with the intention of 
defection, and the denial is that he did not mean to do 
so by taking up arms on the side of the enemy. This 
denial is a negative pregnant, and must be held not only 
to prove nothing in Reed's behalf, but to authorize the 
belief that the witness could not explicitly deny the 
charge. I have not the least reason to suspect " that Reed 
had any intention of abandoning the cause or arms of 
his country to join those of the enemy," but only that 
he meditated the abandonment of the cause and arms of 
his country. 

I have thus traced the career of Joseph Reed from the 
beginning of the revolution to the close of 1776. I 
have shown that he pushed a correspondence with Lord 
Dartmouth until he gave a hint that the British govern- 



A inSTORICAL ESSAY. 37 

ment might wish to have him on their side ; that, not 
making his way in that direction, he, on the exaggerated 
reports of the strength of the army around Boston, went 
in Washington's family to the camp; that after the 
weakness of that army manifested itself, he gave up his 
post and returned to Philadelphia; that on the six- 
teenth of February, 1776, he took the oath of alleo;iance 
to George the Third ; that finding Pennsylvania was 
likely to be a scene of strife, he escaped the necessity of 
acting decisively by leaving its legislature for the camp 
at New York; that he disapproved of most of what 
was done in 1776 to bring Pennsylvania to moorings on 
the patriot side; that on the 4th of July, 1776, he 
declared that " had he known the true posture of affairs 
he would not have taken an active part ;" that when 
congress was signing the Declaration of Independence, 
he was sighing for a quick return to the state of depend- 
ence; that in September, 1776, he resolved within him- 
self to resign ; that on the first of October he sent his 
resignation to the committee of congress, to be accepted 
" the sooner, the better ; " that in the middle of October 
he promised his wife not to sa,crifice her and their chil- 
dren to fame ; that in November he calumniated Wash- 
ington, and intrigued with Lee ; that in the last week of 
November he was sent on special duty to Burlington, 
New Jersey, and instead of doing that duty, he threw up 
his commission without being relieved ; that being terri- 
fied into a recall of his commission, he still breathed 
disaffection ; that he " did not understand following the 
remains of a shattered army;" that without the know- 
ledge of his superior officer he sought a conference with 
Donop ; that he avowed his opinion that a man with a 
family did right to provide for their safety by submit- 



38 JOSEPH EEED : 

ting to the British ; that he was persuaded the army 
would go to pieces "by the end of the year unless some 
victory should meantime be achieved ; that he reported 
unfavorably on the movement proposed below Trenton, 
and believed that Washington would likewise fail ; 
that, pretending to have been sent as the virtual com- 
mander of an army, he separated himself from that army, 
aud, without a public motive, went alone, or with but 
one companion, within the chain of posts of the British ; 
that a servant-maid reported having overheard him say 
to John Cox that he meant to go to the British camp ; 
and that the best which John Cox, a devoted and familiar 
friend, could certify by way of purging him from the 
charge of having meditated defection, was, that he never 
heard Reed sa^y he intended to take up arms on the 
British side. Is it not plain that, as a public man, he was 
shuffling, pusillanimous, and irresolute ; that in moments 
of crisis he avoided committal ; that the tardiness of his 
decisions made them of no significance ; that his character 
was tainted by duplicity ; and that, as a vacillating 
trimmer, he, in the darkest moment of the darkest hour, 
meditated defection ? 



PART SECOND. 



This brings me to the second part of our discussion, 
and I must now show that Reed's general character, as 
manifested by his conduct from the end of 1776 to the 
middle of 1783, instead of rebutting the testimony that 



A HISTOPJCAL ESSAY. 39 

has beeu brought forward, justifies every doulbt that 
has been expressed of his integrity. 

1. 

After the victories of Trenton and Princeton, the first 
anxiety of Keed was to recover the good opinion of 
Washino;ton. To advance this end, he on the eii^rhth of 
March, 1777, WTote to Washington: "I could have 
wished to have one hour of private conversation with 
you on the subject of a letter, written to me by General 
Lee before his captivity. I deferred it in hopes of 
obtainins: from him the letter to which his was an 
answer. I fear, from what we hear, that he will be sent 
to England, and of course there will be little proba- 
bility of my obtaining it. While he stays in America 
I cannot give up my hopes, and in the mean time I most 
sincerely a^ure you, that you would see notJiing in it 
inconsistent with that respect and oyffection, ichich I 
have J and ever shall hear to your person and character.'''' 
(Washington, iv. 538). Now this asserts by implication 
that Keed wished to show Washington the letter which 
he had written to Lee. He does not positively aver 
that he has not a copy of it, but he plainly intended 
Washington should believe that he had i;ot a copy. 
Yet he had retained a draft or copy of that letter, 
which has since been brought to light, and published by 
Geoi'ge H. Moore in his " Treason of Lee." Next, he 
assures Washington "most solemnly" that Washington, 
were he to read the letter, W'Ould see nothing in it 
inconsistent with respect and affection. The letter to 
Lee referred to contained amono; other thino-s the follow- 
ing passages : 

" I do not mean to flatter or praise you (Charles Lee) 



40 JOSEPH KEED : 

at tlie expense of any other, but I confess I do think 
that it is entirely owing to you that this army, and the 
liberties of America, so far as they are dependent on it, 
ai'e not totally cut off. You have decision, a quality 
often wanted in minds otherwise valuable, and I as- 
cribe to this our escape from York Island, from Kings- 
bridge, and the Plains. * * * Oh ! General, an 
indecisive mind is one of the greatest misfortunes that 
can befall an army ; how often have I lamented it this 
campaign." (Reed's Reed, i. 255-256.) 

What shall we say of a man who insinuates a regret 
of his inability to show a letter of which he had retained 
a copy, and, concealing the document, gives his most 
solemn assurance of that which has not even a color of 
truth ? On the fourth of June, Reed writes again to 
Washington, in a still more earnest strain, reasserting his 
respect and attachment, " from which," he gays, " what- 
ever my enemies have insinuated, upon my honor I have 
never deviated" (Washington, iv. 539). Was Reed 
nice about his honor ? 

2. 

Pennsylvania was rent by factions at the time of the 
battle of Brandywine, and it was when these factions 
were at their height, that Reed, in September, 1777, was 
borne into congress. There, his ability, his acquaintance 
with the army, and his position as the representative of a 
central State which was the field of action, gave him 
consideration. His great achievement in the winter was 
the transfer of the quartermaster-general's department 
from salaried officers to a partnership of Greene, and two 
men who were his connections by marriage ; and who 
received for their emoluments five per cent, on all their 



A HISTOEICAL ESSAY. 41 

disbursements. One of tlie two men was the Jolin Cox 
whom ^ve have just seen appearing as Reed's purgative 
witness. (Bancroft's Letter to the North American 
Review, March, 1867.) 

3. 

It was the fashion to court popularity by proj)osing 
rash measures. Reed in that winter advises Washing- 
ton, whose army was in the most desperate condition, 
to leave Pennsylvania, and, without the supremacy on 
the water, to throw himself against New York; a system 
which, if adopted, must have been followed by the 
ruin of Washington's fame, and imminent danger to 
the country. 

4. 

Governor Johnstone, one of the commissioners sent 
out in 1778 to bring about an accommodation be- 
tween the United States and Great Britain, wrote 
tempting letters to several individuals, among others 
to Joseph Reed, with whom he, like Lord Howe, in 1776, 
had been put in connection by a letter from Dennis De 
BeVdt. That letter said even, " that Reed's name had 
been mentioned to his majesty with great respect." To 
the letter from Jolmstone, Reed replied near the latter 
end of June, and his answer was couched in so meek a 
spirit that Washington advised him not to send it, say- 
ing, " an unfavorable use, more than probably, will be 
made of it." Yet the reply of Reed appears to have 
been sent. A few days after, but still in June, he met 
by appointment one Mrs. Ferguson, who was anxious 
to consult him about saving her estate in Pennsylvania 
from confiscation. In the course of conversation she 
professed to have authority from Johu stone to say, that 



42 JOSEPH EEED : 

in case of a reunion between the two countries, to be 
promoted by Heed's interest, it could not be deemed 
improper in the British government to let bim bave ten 
thousand pounds, and any office in the colonies in his 
majesty's gift. 

It was shnply ridiculous for her to make offers in the 
name of the British government and the king, in reward 
for services which were impossible to be rendered. E-eed 
heard the proposition, by his own account, in silence, but 
finding that an answer was expected, he made a very 
proper one, but not more decided than he would have 
done had he been disposed to a parley ; for he would not 
have put himself in the power of an American woman. 
The conversation continued upon the affairs of Mrs. 
Ferguson; but Keed, who had answered Governor 
Johnstone's written communication of the same tenor 
with friendly tameness, kept his reply to a woman in 
reserve for future use, and after a month's delay brought 
it out in an epigrammatic form. Mrs. Ferguson de- 
nied on oath " that the conversation had been kindly, 
friendly, or fairly stated" (Remembrancer for 1779, 
141). 

The Marquis de Chastellux, who was the true friend 
of the people ; who was the author of the phrase, that 
the end of government should be " the greatest happi- 
ness of the greatest number;" who served most hono- 
rably and disinterestedly in America ; who was a man 
of honor, and candid, impartial judgment ; who so at- 
tracted Washington that after their parting Washington 
said of him, " I love him like a brother," writes thus 
about the offers made to Reed throus^h Mrs. Fero-uson : 
" Mr. Reed, who is a man of talent, a little of an in- 
triguer, and, above all, greedy of popular favor, made a 



A mSTOEICAL ESSAY. 43 

great noise, published and exaggerated the offers that 
were made to liim " (Cbastellux, i. 166). 

Chastellux judged the conduct of Reed from what 
was then known ; but we must measure the degree of 
Keed's indignation by what the marquis never saw, the 
mihi response of Keed to Johnstone, and by the follow- 
ing billet, written nearly a month after Reed's interview 
with Mrs. Ferguson : 

"Philadelphia, July 19, 1778. 
"Mr. Reed begs the favor of Mrs. Yard to take up any letters of a 
private nature she may find for hini in New York, and if she meets with 
any difficulty in this or any part of her own business, Mr. Reed will pre- 
sume so much upon the politeness of Gov. Johnstone as to request his 
favor to her as Mr. R's friend. Should she Avait on Gov. Johnstone on 
this or any other occasion, Mr. R. begs her to present him respectfully 
to that gentleman, and acquaint him that Mr. R, received his letter, and 
did himself the honor of answering it from General Washington's head- 
quarters, at the Valley Forge, the latter end of last month. Mr. R. 
wishes her a good journey and a safe return, with all possible success in 
her business." 

My copy of this billet came to me from Scotland, from 
the papers of Adam Ferguson, the historian of the Ro- 
man Republic, who was secretary to the British commis- 
sion of 1778. 

5. 

After the recovery of Philadelphia, two Quakers were 
brought up for trial for high treason. What part Reed 
took on the occasion may be learned from a letter from 
the French minister, Gerard, to Vergennes, which runs 
as follows : 

"The Quakers of different provinces meeting in this place for their 
annual assembly, it was wished to give them the spectacle of seeing two 
of their principal members hanged. Great consternation prevails among 



44 JOSEPH EEED : 

them, but it is yet expected that they will yield immediately to the 
necessity of circumstances. As traits which characterize the manners 
of this country, I will remark that a former member of congress and the 
judge of the admiralty have undertaken to defend the Quakers, accused 
of high treason. A member of the present Congress was disposed to 
undertake the defense jointly with them, but as the time of the election 
is drawing near, he succumbed to public clamor, and he has, on the con- 
trary, served as Assistant to the Attorney-General. It is proposed to 
indemnify him for the sacrifice, which is not inconsiderable, for Roberts 
has paid six thousand pounds to his advocates" (Gerard to Vergennes, 
Oct. 4, 1778). 

It was on this occasion that Cadwalader said of Reed : 
" It argued the extremity of effrontery and baseness in 
one man to pursue another to death for taking a step 
which his own foot had been once raided to take " (Cad- 
walader's Reply, 23). 

6. 

In December, 1778, Joseph Reed was elected Presi- 
dent of Pennsylvania. He had himself been one of the 
most strenuous opposers of the constitution, and received 
the support of those who disapproved it like himself, in 
the expectation that he would take the lead in the sup- 
port of amendments. Elected to the chair, he put him- 
self at the head of the party for the constitution. 

7. 
In July, 1779, the letter of Reed to Lee in 1776 once 
more became a subject of queries. Reed, then " Presi- 
dent " of Pennsylvania, immediately took notice of them. 
The notice is remarkable only as showing the indifference 
of Reed to truth when there was occasion for vindica- 
tions of himself. Here is an extract : 

"In the fall of 1776, I was extremely anxious that Fort "Washington 
should be evacuated ; there was a difference in opinion among those 



A mSTOEICAL ESSAY. 45 

whom the General consulted. * * * Knowing that General Lee's 
opinion would be a great support to mine, I wrote to liim from Hack- 
ensack, stating the case and my reasons. * * * 'j^jjq event but too 
fully justified my anxiety, for the fort was summoned that very day and 
surrendered the next. I absolutely deny that there is any other ground 
but this letter, and if there is let it be produced " (Reed's Reed, i. 
262). 

Now the letter of Reed to Lee was written on tlie 
21st of November, five days after Fort Washington had 
fallen. There could be no pretext for lapse of memory, 
for Lee had preserved the letter itself, and Heed had 
kept the draft or a copy. But Reed risked the false- 
hood, holding Lee's written pledge that the letter should 
not be produced to embroil him with Washington 
(Reed's Reed, i. 3G9). 

8. 

Joseph Reed proved a most inefficient President. 
The spirit of Pennsylvania was noble, but its patriotism 
was compelled to manifest itself outside of its executive 
government. Of this there exists an abundance of 
evidence ; I will take only Greene, Washington, and the 
French minister, as witnesses. In 1780 the French 
government proposed to send to our aid ships of war 
and an army, as well as money, doing every thing to 
interest the gratitude of the Americans, fire their emu- 
lation, and rouse them to such activity in the coming 
campaign as might be decisive in the contest. Washing- 
ton was dissatisfied with the government of Pennsylvania 
for M^ant of proper exertions to save the army. Greene, 
in a letter to Reed, uses these words: "The great man 
is confounded at his situation, but appears to be reserved 
and silent." On the twenty-eighth of May " the great 
man " employs in advance language of persuasive power, 



46 JOSEPH EEED : 

entreaty, and affectionate confidence, whidi the President 
was to justify by his acts, and thus wrote to Reed : 

"Now, my dear Sir, I must observe to you, that much will depend 
on the State of Pennsylvania. * * * Delaware may contribute 
handsomely, in proportion to her extent. But Pennsylvania is our 
chief dependence. * * * j know that, with the best dispositions 
to promote the public service, you have been obliged to move with 
circumspection. But this is a time to hazard and to take a tone of 
energy and decision. All parties but the disaffected will acquiesce in 
the necessity and give their support. * * * Either Pennsylvania 
must give us all the aid we ask of her, or we can undertake nothing. 
* * * I wish the legislature could be engaged to vest the executive 
with plenipotentiary powers. I should then expect ever}' thing practi- 
cable from your abilities and zeal " (Washington's Writings, vii. 
61-63). 

The patriotic legislature accordingly gave extraordi- 
nary powers, but President Reed refused to employ 
them. Upon this Greene wrote to Reed, on the 29th of 
June: "The general, the array, and in a word every- 
body have their eyes upon you,, knowing the State 
abounds with resources of every kind, and that you 
have power to draw them forth " (Reed, i. 217). The 
opinion went abroad that Reed was restrained from act- 
ing by the fear of injuring his popularity. The judg- 
ment of Washington respecting this inactivity may be 
seen runninc; like a thread throui2:h a letter of interces- 
sion couched in the most friendly language, but in sub- 
stance full of rej^roof and complaint. Here are some of 
his words, written on the 4th of July, 1780 : 

" Motives of friendship, not less than of public good, induce me with 
freedom to give you my sentiments on a matter which interests you per- 
sonally, as well as the good of the common cause. * * * The best 
way to preserve the confidence of the people durably is to promote their 
true interest. * * * The party opposed to you in the government 



A IIISTOEICAL ESSAY. 47 

I 

are making great efforts. * * * You liave no effectual waj- to coun- 
terbalance this but by employing all your influence and authority to 
render services proportioned to your station. Hitherto, I confess to you 
frankly, my dear Sir, I do not think your affairs have been in the train 
which might be wished. * * * j ^.^ite to you with the freedom 
of friendship, and I hope you will esteem it the truest mark I could give 
you of it." (Washington's Writings, vii, 99-101.) 

It is strange that any one should have been so misled 
by the sweets around the brim of this cup, as not to 
perceive the ])itterness of the potion commended to the 
lips of " the President." The letter is a severe rebuke 
even more than a cry of distress, and proves that Wash- 
inp^ton had come to know Reed as one who was ever 
thinking more of himself than of his country. 

But Reed could not contemplate events with the eyes 
of Washington. Instead of following the advice re- 
ceived, he wrote in reply an enormously long letter, and 
threw the blame of his deficiency on the people of Penn- 
sylvania, whom he thus aspersed : " It is my firm opin- 
ion, sanctified by that of many gentlemen of more 
knowledge and experience, that the people of this State 
would, if too heavily pressed, more readily reneAV their 
connection with Great Britain than any State noAV in the 
Union" (Reed, ii. 288). 

Such was the " President's " opinion of the people 
whose legislature had chosen him president. He did 
now, what he had repeatedly done before — he trans- 
ferred his own infirmities to those around him. Just so 
on the 4th of July, 1776, when he quailed with fear and 
wished he had taken no part in the war, he thought 
there was a "universal " quailing of all about him. In 
November, when from helpless indecision he knew not 
what to do, he thought Washington was undecided ; 



48 JOSEPH EEED : 

and now, wlaen lie feared to tate the responsibility 
devolved upon him by the Pennsylvania legislature, he 
threw the blame from his own want of heart upon the 
State itself. 

The French Secretary Marbois, the author of most 
valuable works on the treason of Arnold and on the 
history of Louisiana, sets the whole matter in a clear 
light in his letter from Philadelphia, written on the 25th 
of September, 1780, for the instruction of Vergennes: 

" The President of the State sacrifices every thing to the desire to 
increase his popularity, and obstinately persists in neither raising troops 
nor contingent, nor the quota of taxes, in the hope that, as the price of 
his trucklings [7nenaffements^, he will prolong his authority beyond the 
limit fixed by the constitution. By his resistance. Congress sees the 
plan of finance of last March on the point of being wrecked." 

9. 

Events proved how wise was the advice of Washing- 
ton, and how totally Reed mistook the character of the 
Pennsylvanians, and " the best way to preserve their 
confidence durably." This appears fully from a letter 
of the French ambassador at Philadelphia, written on 
the 19th of December, 1782: 

" Mr. Reed, after having exercised in all its extent the power which 
the constitution grants to the chief magistrate of this State, after hav- 
ing for three years moved according to his own caprice a government 
composed of his creatures, falls into abject degradation [raviiisscment], 
appears oppressed with the hatred and contempt of most of his fellow- 
citizens, and to feel how transient is the favor of the people when it is 
founded upon nothing but intrigue." 

The account sent home to England by Sir Guy Carle- 
ton, who was a man of great moderation and candor, 
after the arrival of the news of peace, is not more favor- 
al>le to President Reed. General Cadwalader describes 



A HISTOEICAL ESSAY, 49 

Reed as " a rapacious lawyer, who never omitted any 
means of amassing a fortune" (Cadwalader, 52). In 
August, 1782, General Greene, wlio was Reed's friend, 
described him as " pursuing wealth with avidity, being 
convinced that to have power you must have riches" 
(Reed's Reed, ii. 387). The accounts sent by Carleton 
are : " In his private character he is a man of polite ad- 
dress, a good fluency of speech, exceedingly artful, much 
attached to his interest, and ambitious of being respected 
as a great man. He is possessed of some good qualities, 
but his avarice casts a shade over them." " Mr. Reed is 
a man of great abilities, possessed of a daring, enterpri- 
sing genius, but said to be destitute of every honorable 
sentiment." (In the Letters of Sir Guy Carleton to the 
Secretary of State, of March 15 and April 13, 1783.) 

10. 

In September, 1782, there appeared in the Philadel- 
phia Independent Gazetteer an anonymous paper accusa- 
tory of Reed. The people do not like to see blows 
aimed at a man who is down, and the sentiment in Phil- 
adelphia in regard to it seems to have been expressed 
by John Armstrong, in February, 1785, in these words : 
" It is cruel when we consider the bed of thorns he 
[Reed] has sat upon for six long years, and the many 
disappointments, civil and military, he has met with." 
Reed, by his defense, forced Cadwalader to reply ; but 
in my history I made no use of this controversy, except 
by happening to cite one or two lines uttered to Cad- 
walader in 1776, and which are no more than an echo 
of other words and acts of Joseph Reed himself. But, as 
fxr as character is concerned, the pamphlet of Joseph 
Reed is his own worst accuser. It was the study and 
4 



50 JOSEPH EEED : 

analysis of tLat pamphlet which opened my eyes to his 
hoUowness. 

It is discursive, and seeks to win the judgment of the 
reader by scattering attention over many subjects, some 
of which are iiTelevant. 

It would have been a complete justification of Reed's 
letter to Donop if he could have said that he sent it by 
Washington's direction ; and he is obliged to own that 
he sent it on his own motion, without authority. He 
declares that he acted by the request of the inhabitants 
of Burlington, and his witness only testifies that he did 
so as " this deponent understood." He owns that he 
spent many hours on the 26th at Burlington, and he 
gives no public reason whatever for having done so. 
He cites John Cox as his witness for not havins; medi- 
tated defection ; and Cox only testifies that he did not 
intend joining " the arms " of the enemy. 

He appeals most earnestly to the justice and candor 
of Washington for deliverance; and the answer con- 
tains not one word of hearty approbation or enduring 
confidence. Washins^ton alludes to his having^ sent 
Reed from Newark to the Assembly of New Jersey, as 
proof of confidence " at that time ;" but he says not 
one word of Reed's havino- executed the tnist committed 
to him. Reed especially calls Washington's attention to 
his letter of December 22d, on attacking Trenton ; but 
Washington, who, if Reed had been the mover of that 
expedition, must have had the fact indelibly written on 
his mind, puts the inquiry aside as coldly as if he had 
dipped his pen in the icy waters of the Yukon. 

But the great injury done to Reed's reputation by his 
own pamphlet is the insincerity and inaccuracy of his 
statements, proving a lurking consciousness that his 



A HISTORICAL ESSAY. 51 

case would not bear a simple acknowledgment of the 
truth. Take a single passage as an example of the 
whole : 

"In the course of our retreat through the Jerseys, I was dispatched on 
public business to the legislature of New Jersey at Burlington, where 
my fauiily had retired. By this time the enemy had advanced to Bruns- 
wick, where they proposed to finish the campaign, making that their 
advanced quarters, as we intended ours at Trenton or Princeton. The 
time was now come wlien I conceived I might resign my commission 
with propriety, and I accordingly inclosed it to Mr. Hancock, then 
president of congress. At midnight of that very day, I received a 
message from General Washington, that, invited by the broken state of 
our troops, the enemy had changed their plan, and were rapidly advan- 
cing toward the Delaware, upon which I instantly sent off a special 
messenger to recall the commission, and resolved to return to the army 
and abide its fate. He was in time to deliver my letter before congress 
had met, and returned with the commission, with which I joined General 
Washington at Trenton the next morning" (J. Reed, 12). 

By this time the enemy had advanced to Brunswick. 
Not true. They had not advanced to Brunswick. 

Where tliey ])roposed to finish tlie campaign. They 
were then pushing Washington, and had not proposed 
to finish the campaign. 

We intended to finish ow's at Trenton or Princeton. 
Washino^on harbored no such desio;n. 

TJie time was now come lohen I conceived I might 
resign my commission with propriety. It was the time 
when he ought least of all to have resigned his commis- 
sion, and could least of all have done it with propriety. 
He was at that time sent on special duty " to the Assem- 
bly of New Jersey, to rouse and animate them to 
spirited measures for Washington's support;" and he 
offered his resignation without the knowledge of Wash- 
ington, without having finished the duty assigned him, 
and without having been relieved. 



52 JOSEPH EEED : 

Unclosed my commission to Mr. Hancock. * * * j4^ 
Tnidnight I received a message from General Washing- 
ton. The pretense that his change of purpose was swift 
has no foundation. Keed inclosed his commission 
November 28, and Washington's letters to him and the 
Governor of New Jersey were dated November 30. 

A message from General Washington that the enemy 
had changed their plan. Pure fiction. He could have 
received no such message from Washington, for the 
enemy had not changed their plan, and were then 
driving Washington before tliem, as they had been 
doing when Reed left the camp. 

I instantly sent off a special messenger to recall the 
commission. * * * JJe luas in time to deliver my letter 
before congress had met. Reed's letter recalling his 
commission was written December 2, and reached con- 
gress December 3. 

Thus the excuses of E-eed are a series of false state- 
ments both as to the character of events and as to time ; 
and this is but a specimen of the way in which he tries 
to bend facts to his own self-justification. 

The historic importance of Reed was so inconsiderable 
that his career should have been left to oblivion, as the 
Philadelphians of 1783 were willing to leave it; but 
there was first on his own part, and afterward on the 
part of his descendant, an unscrupulous determination 
to raise him to a position to which he has no title. And 
this leads to the third part of the present discussion. 



A HISTORICAL ESSAY. 53 



PAET THIRD. 



It was necessary to exhibit Reed in his tnie light in 
order to purge the pages of history of scandalous error, 
introduced in part by the "President" himself, but 
greatly and daringly enlarged by his elaborate biogra- 
pher, with painstaking plausibility and an affectation of 
historical impartiality, but without authority and against 
clear evidence. 

To carry out the cherished design of conferring 
exalted fame on one who had no claim to it, a necessity 
arose to rob 'the truly meritorious of their laurels ; and, 
as the highest honors were coveted, to tear them from 
the chaplet of Washington. In the pursuit of this object, 
there was no scruple to destroy the reputation of the 
Commander-in-chief. No book that I have ever read 
contains such libels on Washington' sconduct and ability 
as the biography of Joseph Reed by his grandson. The 
wrong is concealed under occasional words of praise, and 
under statements and language that wear the aspect of 
innocence and good intentions ; but if the narrative is 
severely examined and truly weighed, William B. Reed 
will be found to charge Washington with imbecility, in 
order to make room for the ridiculously false preten- 
sion, that much of what was done best in the war of the 
revolution was done by the Joseph Reed whose cha- 
racter, career, and estimation among his fellow-men we 
have been considering. 



54 JOSEPH EEED : 

1. 

The first signal attempt by tlie gi'andson to injure tte 
fame of Washington, and appi'opriate his merit to Joseph 
Reed, is made in the account of the retreat from Long 
Island. 

For this he prepares the way by imaginary state- 
ments. He assumes that Washington, who crossed over 
to Brooklyn on the twenty-sixth, passed the following 
night on Long Island. He says: "Washington acted as 
if in command of victorious troops" [Reed's Reed, i., p. 
222]. "Washington still adhered to his intention to 
risk a battle at his intrenchments, and the idea of a 
retreat was not then entertained" [p. 224]. Some hours 
after Washington had ordered the necessary prepara- 
tions for a retreat, with the secrecy which alone could 
promise success, William B. Reed writes of him : " The 
Commander-in-Chief desired to try the fortune of war 
once more in his present position ;" and so having repre- 
sented Washington as a simpleton, bent on losing him- 
self and his army, he brings forward Joseph Reed as the 
wise and sagacious officer who was just in time to save 
the country by overcoming Washington's perverse deter- 
mination to fight, and persuading him to leave Long 
Island. [See Bancroft, ix. 101-107.] 

2. 

In an extravagant letter, thrown off in a moment of 
tremulous irresolution, Joseph Reed had accused Wash- 
ington of an indecisive mind, and had emphatically written 
that it was owinsc to General Lee that WashiuQ-ton's 
army had not been entirely cut off. William B. Reed, 
therefore, to protect the reputation of his grandfather, 
does not scruple to write that Lee " arrived at camp at 



A HISTORICAL ESSAY, 55 

the moment when the council of war was hesitating, and 
probably by his decisive expression of opinion, and his 
influence, happily controlled its determination " to retire 
from the island of New York. Now, in truth, Lee came 
with no such idea; and Washington had not only re- 
solved on the evacuation of New York island, but had 
already removed more than half of his army before Lee's 
arrival. [See Bancroft, ix. 175 ; note.] 

3. 

The battle of Trenton is the great rallying-ground of 
Reed and his grandson. What did Reed really do 
about the battle of Trenton ? Some days after the attack 
on Trenton had been resolved upon by Washington, 
Reed, who thought success impossible, wrote to Wash- 
ington advising it, and saying that " favorable appear- 
ances must attend our arms," or " we must give up the 
cause," the "desperate and hopeless cause." On the 
night of Christmas-day he did not believe that success 
would attend the expedition. Yet William B. Reed, in 
his biography of his grandfather, even risks the assertion 
(Reed's Reed, i. 271), that "it is certain that the letter 
from Colonel Reed (of December 2 2d) had an immedi- 
ate and conclusive influence ;" when it is established 
beyond the room for a cavil, that it had no influence at 
all on the plan or the execution of the attack, which was 
in preparation long before that letter was written. 

If Reed wished to influence Washington's conduct, 
why did he keep back his advice till long after Wash- 
ington had made his decision ? And if he had advice to 
give, why did he, who was at the head of Washington's 
staff and within an hour's ride of head-quarters, give his 
opinion in a prolix letter ? His grandson insists that 



56 JOSEPH EEED : 

the letter could not Lave been written to be produced 
for his own justification ; for, says he, " if such was Mr. 
Reed's design in writing this letter, he would have kept 
a copy to produce on a fit occasion, and this we know he 
certainly did not; as I have said in the text, he never 
saw this letter during his life." " He would liave hept a 
copy.'''' Of course he would. '■'■And this we hnow lie 
certainly did notT And this we know he certainly did ; 
for Gordon in his history quotes from it the skilfully 
selected passages that might serve to glorify Reed. 
From whom did Gordon get the extract ? From Wash- 
ington or from Reed himself? We have it under 
Washino^ton's own hand that he refused to Gordon 
access to his papers ; then it follows that Gordon, who 
during the war of the Revolution collected papers on all 
sides, obtained it from Joseph Reed himself, though his 
work was not printed till after Reed's death. So then 
Gordon's story of Reed's suggestion of the affair of 
Trenton is traced to none other than to Joseph Reed. 
That Reed was capable of attempting to appropriate to 
himself praise that did not belong to him, was observed 
by Charles Thomson, in Reed's lifetime. 

William B. Reed, in his late pamphlet, seeks to 
renew the exploded idea that the movement on Trenton 
was of the suggestion of his grandfather, and to support 
that claim, from a speech delivered by a lawyer in court 
thirty-three years after the event, he quotes an allusion to 
an opinion of Mifflin, as of one who, at the time, was a 
member of the council of war. Now all this falls to the 
ground; for Mifflin, at the time of the Trenton affair, 
was not a member of the council of war, having been 
absent from camp then and for weeks before, so that of 
himself he knew nothing about the matter. From 



A HISTORICAL ESSAY. 57 

whom then did Mifflin get his story about the sug- 
gestion? From Washington or Reed? Not from 
Washington ; if indeed, so far as Mifflin's name is used, 
the whole matter is not a mistake, as the essential part 
certainly is. 

Having thus disposed of the false value put upon 
Reed's letter of December 22, 1776, the question recurs : 
What did Reed actually do toward securing success at 
Trenton ? And the answer is, as the head of Washing- 
ton's staff, he did nothing ; as the virtual commander at 
Bristol, nothing ; as a visitor at Burlington, nothing ; as 
a self-constituted messenger to Putnam, nothing ; as a 
reporter to Washington of what was doing below, 
nothing, or worse than nothing. 

And where was Joseph Reed during the battle? 
Every minute of the time, twelve miles off, voluntarily 
separated from the army, and snugly sheltered from the 
sleet and the stormy northeast wind, in a comfortable 
house within the enemy's line of posts. 

Every word of praise ever given to Joseph Reed in 
connection with the affair of Trenton, can be traced 
directly to Reed himself or his grandson. 

4. 

Again, at Germantown, when the divisions under the 
command of Sullivan and Wayne passed Chew's house 
without delay, and Washington, after masking Chew's 
house with a single regiment, followed with the reserve, 
and continued during the action on the edge of battle, 
the " President's " grandson will have it that Washing- 
ton and his staff remained near Chew's house, and gives 
a statement that the halt was persisted in against the 
advice of Joseph Reed. Now there exists no evidence 



58 JOSEPH eeed: 

that Reed, wlio was at that time not in the army, was 
present; and further, Sullivan's contemporary account, 
with which the biographer was familiar, places Wash- 
ington in the heat of the engagement at the front. 

Thus a careful examination proves that William B. 
Reed, in his zeal to ascribe to his grandfather merit that 
was not his due, libels Washington, places him as an 
officer below mediocrity, and supports his insinuations 
by a series of misstatements and perversions. 

The conclusion of the whole matter is, that with more 
elevation of nature, and more of the spirit of a martyr, 
Joseph Reed would have obtained a high place in the 
annals of his country ; but, as it is, his career was that 
of a selfish and not verj successful ambition, and his 
memory will suffer least by allowing it to rejDose in 
obscurity. 

There never will be an end to the innocent illusions 
of family vanity ; but uniform and indiscriminate praise 
destroys individuality of delineation, and takes from his- 
tory its instructiveness. In England Earl Stanhope has 
written from the best materials a most interesting bio- 
graphy of the younger Pitt, with whom he was con- 
nected by family ties, by sentiments of gratitude, and 
by the affinities of political principles ; yet he has not 
hesitated to expose the very grave defects in his charac- 
ter and conduct, and has obtained approbation for can- 
dor. Lord Russell writes a biography of Fox, M^hich 
he designates as " a Whig life " of Fox ; but still the 
licentiousness of Fox in private life, and the occasional 
uncertainty of his political conduct, are not concealed. 
At least four British writers of our time, three of whom 
still live, have directly or incidentally cast opprobrium 
on the name of Wedderburn ; yet the inheritor of his 



A HISTOEICAL ESSAY. 59 

title, wlio furnished material for his biography, is not so 
unwise as to indulge in an angry flood of vituperation 
against those who had no object in view but historic 
fidelity, and who would have been false to their own 
honor if they had neglected to give utterance to the 
truth. ; It is a curious fact, that this extreme irritability 
as to historic statements is greater in this country than 
anywhere else ; and if we accept the accounts of admi- 
ring descendants, our country will have produced a 
greater number of incomparable generals and faultless 
statesmen than all the world beside. Why must it be 
that, in discussing the character and career of public 
men, a greater sensitiveness should prevail among an 
adulatory posterity in this republic than in older lands ? 
Ours is the form of government under which there 
exists the least reason for hereditary pride ; and where 
least of all history should be falsified to flatter ground- 
less pretensions. I Is it that because we are as yet so new, 
we have not fully learned the imperative obligation 
of the laws of historical criticism ? Whoever acts in 
public, subjects himself to public judgment. History 
is the high court of humanity, where truth must be 
heard, and justice must be pronounced. In this happy 
abode of universal freedom, individual men, even the 
best of them, compared to the people, are but as drops 
that glisten for a moment in the light, before they fall 
into the mighty and undecaying ocean. When a great 
English statesman was publicly complimented as the 
saviour of England and of Europe, he put aside the 
praise which was not his due. I apply the spirit of the 
remarks which he then made, to our own country. The 
American people saved themselves by their exertions, 
and will, I trust, save the liberties of mankind by their 
example. 



APPEllTDIX. 



Feiedrich Kapp to George Bancroft : — 

Dear Sir : — In accordance with your request, I have carefully 
read Mr. William B, Eeed's pamphlet, entitled " President Eeed of Penn 
sylvania," and paid especial attention to that part which relates to the 
Donop diary, from which he accuses you of having " adduced a mutilated 
extract." 

I purpose examining the question, whether or not you were correct in 
your assertion, that this diary alludes positively arid unqualifiedly to Col. 
Reed as having ohtained a protection. 

I cannot help expressing my surprise, that Mr. Reed, in writing a 
pamphlet intended for the perusal of educated men, should adopt a style 
of vague intimations and irrelevant statements which would naturally 
suggest to those of his readers who are acquainted with his reputation for 
ahility, that the writer is conscious of the weakness of his position, and 
that he has profited hy the instruction conveyed in the old story of the 
barrister, who found nothing on his brief except, " We have no case ; pitch 
into the plaintiff's witnesses." Indeed, his language and materials appear 
more like those of a village orator, endeavoring to vindicate an ancestor 
from the obloquy which more enlightened judgment than his own has 
occasioned, than those of a dispassionate inquirer into historical truth- 
He says: "he has [you have], it seems, been more successful since, but he 
had to go to the shameful records of Brunswick and Hesse Cassel, to the 
diaries and note-books of mercenary strangers, ignorant of the English 
language — 'Ewalds,' and 'Bourmeisters,' and even '■ MiincJihausens' (p. 
211), before he succeeded in finding what he seems to have craved so 
eagerly." Ewald and Miinchhausen, here mentioned, spoke English well ; 
the latter was sent as aide-de-camp to General Howe, to act as translator 
and interpreter for his countrymen. Mr. Reed resorts to the unworthy 
subterfuge of causing Miinchhausen's name to appear in italics, doubtless to 
discredit your authorities by casting a stigma on the veracity of that officer 
identifying him with the prince of mendacity and exaggeration ; thus con- 
veying the idea that Captain Miinchhausen, who was in fact an able man 
and an acute observer of events, was an unreliable, although disinterested 
Avitness. With equal propriety we could doubt the ability of Daniel Web- 
ster as an expounder of the Constitution, for the weighty reason that a 



APPENDIX. 61 

Webster once existed who killed his creditor, or that there was another 
"Webster who was a reprobate. 

Mr. Reed resorts to a shallow artifice in endeavoring to enlist in his ser- 
vice the prejudice of Americans against the German mercenaries, in that 
part where he says : " I beg the reader to observe that I have not conde- 
scended to dwell on the astounding fact that an American writer, who on 
one page records the brutality of these alien mercenaries, on another, 
should ostentatiously cite a Hessian colonel's clerk as a witness against his 
own countrymen." According to this absurd theory, foreign authors are 
not only forbidden to write American history, but American authors are 
forbidden to write it from the testimony of foreign witnesses. Not only 
the jury, but the witnesses are to be selected by the party on trial. This 
ridiculous idea may be further developed into a rule forbidding the native 
of one section of a country to write the history of another portion, or to 
receive assistance from an alien in writing the history of his own province, 
and makes the standard of birth and origin the only legitimate qualifica- 
tions of an historian. To my mind it is one of your greatest merits that 
you spared neither trouble nor expense in ransacking the archives of the 
civilized world for materials which would assist you in arriving at a correct 
comprehension of the events you desired to detail, and that you have im- 
partially given the results of your researches, uninfluenced by personal 
considerations. Mr. Reed is of course justified in attempting to remove a 
stain from the reputation of his deceased relation, but if in doing so he 
willfully seeks to degrade your best merits, he commits a fault which can- 
not be too greatly reprobated. A Hessian colonel should not be a witness 
against an American I And why not? Is it because he was a mercenary? 
I condemn the sale of soldiers by German princes as unqualifiedly as any 
American can, and the history of that shameful transaction, as you know, 
was first detailed by me ; but I do not think that the officers and men, who 
derived no benefit from the proceeding, and who came to this country 
much against their inclinations, are deserving of so much blame as their 
princes, who derived pecuniary benefit from the sale. The ofiicers received 
no higher pay than they would have been entitled to if they had remained 
at home. They did not come as greedy, hungry adventurers. It may be 
a humiliating fact that they fought for the designs of another people, 
but it is seldom now — and it was much more so at that time — that a war 
assumes the character of a popular struggle, in which the soldier joins in 
devotion to his individual principles. That the soldier must obey orders, 
and not reason upon the necessity of their execution, is one of the 
fundamental rules of his service. I commiserate the officers who were 
compelled by circumstances to fight for a bad cause against a good one, 
but I cannot despise them. These foreigners owed no allegiance to the 
American Government. They came here as public enemies, and were 



62 APPEISTDIX. 

treated <as such ; but their personal integrity should not in consequence 
suffer reproach. If Mr. Reed, in a legal proceeding, had occasion to ex- 
amine a witness whose veracity was untainted, but who, during the late 
rebellion, had conspired with the enemies of his country, who can doubt 
that he would speedily dispose of the objection that the testimony of such 
a witness was unworthy of credence ? Yet in doing so he would effectu- 
ally reply to the objection which he has raised to the credibility of Colonel 
Donop's testimony. The only proper subjects of inquiry should be, 
whether or not he had personal knowledge of the facts he narrates ; whether 
or not he had any interest in the result ; and whether or not, from any per- 
sonal qualities, his evidence could be impeached. Judged by these tests, I 
cannot think of a more irreproachable witness than the author of this 
diary. That he was an able man is proved by his correspondence, and by 
the rank which he attained at an early age ; that he was a brave soldier is 
shown by his being placed in command of the most exposed positions, and 
by his gallant death at Red Bank ; and that he was entirely disinterested, 
and did not design to injure an American, are evident in his diary, written 
in German, which remained undiscovered until about eighty years after his 
death, when it was procured from an historical student of the greatest 
respectability living in Cassel, thus securing for it all the advantages which 
Mr. Reed claims for private correspondence. 

What does Donop say ? You give the material portion in the original, in 
a note to page 229 of your volume. Mr. Reed furnishes a correct transla- 
tion of parts of the diary, on pages 89 and 90 of his pamphlet. He then 
says : — "So far what he says is pretty near tlie truth. Now for the camp 
gossip, which Donop was unwilling to listen to, and I beg the reader to 
observe that the portion in italics, which shows that it was discredited 
hearsay, is carefully suppressed by Mr. Bancroft." He then furnishes a 
translation of the hearsay, which, bearing no reference to the matter in 
question, I think you did well in not incumbering your pages by inserting, 
and afterwards translates incorrectly that " the Colonel Reed hading re- 
ceived a protection had come to meet General MitHin," &c., making the fact 
of Colonel Reed's having received a protection appear to be a part of the 
reports detailed immediately before, instead of an assertion on the part of 
the writer, contained in an incidental descriptive clause. " Der Oberst Reed 
der neulich eine Protection erhalten, seye dem General MitSin entgegen 
gekommen," &c. This passage contains the essence of the whole testi- 
mony, and on its correct construction depends the proper appreciation 
of the nature of the evidence. I impugn the accuracy of Mr. Reed's trans- 
lation. "Whoever made that translation either does not understand Ger- 
man, or, if he does, he has designedly altered the meaning of this sentence, 
so as to convey the false impression that the relative clause, " der neulich 
eine Protection erhalten," was a part of the reports; while, correctly ren- 



APPENDIX. 63 

(lerod, the passage reads : " The Colonel Reed who recently received a protec- 
tion^ is said to have gone to meet General ^[itflin," &c. The writer of the 
Ttiannscript distinguished the colonel, of Avhom he reports other things on 
hearsay, by this relative clause, to prevent his being confounded with any 
other man. If Mr. Reed had placed the German beside his translation, his 
disingenuousness would have been apparent to any German, or any one 
who knows the German language. 

I remain, very sincerely yours, 

FRIEDRICH KAPP. 



M. Gerard a M. le Comte de Vergennes. 
{^Extraifl 

PniLADELPniE, 4 Oct., 1778. 

Les Quakers de differentes provinces se trouvant ici pour leur assemblee 
annuelle, on voudrait leur donner le spectacle de voir pendre deux de leurs 
principaux membres. La consternation est grande parmi eux, mais on ne 
se flatte pas encore qu'ils cedent inmediatement a la necessite des 
circonstances. Corame les traits qui caracterisent les moeurs de ce pays-ci 
sont peut-etre dignes de quelqu'attention, je remarquerai qu'un ancien 
raembre du Congres et le juge de I'amiraute se sont charges de defendre les 
Quakers accuses de haute trahison : Un membre actuel etait dispose a se 
joindre ii eux, mais comme le temps de l'61ection approche, il a cede a la 
clameur publique, et il a servi au contraire de second au procureur G'al. 

On parle de le dedommager de ce sacrifice qui n'est pas mediocre, 
puisque Roberts a donne six mille pounds a ses defenseurs. 



M. DE Marbois au Cojite de Yergennes. 
[Exirait] 
A PiriLADELPHiE Ic 29 Scptcmbre, 1780. 
Les mal-intentionnes sont en tres grand nombre dans cet Etat, et les 
Quakers portent, dit-on, la mauvaise volonte jusques a ne pas ensemencer 
leurs terres dans I'esperance d'augmenter les besoins publics ; mais iudepen- 
damment de cette classe d'hommes, le President de TEtat sacrifie tout au 
desir d'accroitre sa popularite, et s'obstine a ne lever ni troupes ou con- 
tingent, ni les taxes qui lui sont assign(5es, dans I'esperance que pour prix 
de ses menageraents le peuple prolongera son autorite au dela du terme 
fixe par la Constitution. Le Congres voit par sa resistance le plan de 
finance du mois de mars dernier sur le point d'echouer. 



64 APPENDIX. 

M. LE Chevalier de la Luzerne a M. de Raynetal. 
[Exirait.] 

Philadelphie, 19 Octobre, 1782. 
Mr. Eeed, apres avoir exerce dans toute son etendue le pouvoir que la 
Constitution accorde au premier inagistrat de I'etat, apres avoir pendant trois 
ans fait mouvoir a son gre un gouvernement compose de ses creatures, 
tombe dans Favilissement, parait charge de la haine et du mepris de la 
plupart de ses concitojens, et ^prouver combien la faveur du peuple est 
passagere quand elle n'est fondee que sur I'intrigue. 



PEESIDEN^T EEED. 



Mr. Joseph Reed is a native of New Jersey ; his parents were persons 
in the middle state of life ; he received a good education, and, before the 
commencement of the present war, practiced law in the Superior Court of 
Pennsylvania, and was esteemed eminent in his profession. The public 
papers will convey to you a better idea of this person than any thing I can 
say in respect to his character as a statesman. In his private charapter he is 
a man of polite address, a good fluency of speech, exceedingly artful, much 
attached to his interest, and ambitious of being respected as a great man. 
lie is possessed of some good qualities, but his avarice casts a shade over 
them. This failing has so great an ascendency over him, that he does not 
blush to let his own brother go through the streets of Philadelphia sawing 
wood, and doing common labor round the docks. — In Sir Guy Carletori's 
No. 60, of 15th March, 1783. 



[Extracf] 
In Pennsylvania they [parties] have run very high, and are now headed 
by Mr. Dickenson, the present Governor, and Mr. Reed, his predecessor. 
Till lately, all the principal people were much attached to Mr. Dickenson, 
thinking him a man of very superior abilities, which, as a courtier, he 
certainly is ; but they now find him timorous, fickle, and indecisive, an 
unfit character to govern a State in its present convulsed situation. Mr. 
Reed, his opponent, and head of the other party, or rather the mobility, is 
a man of great abilities, possessed of a daring, enterprising genius, but said 
to be destitute of every honorable sentiment. — In Sir Guy Carleton'a No. 
68, of 13th April, 1783. 



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